Today is a happy yet sad day for me. David Crowder Band’s latest album is out today, and I can’t wait to hear it. On the other hand, this will be their last, and I’m completely bummed. I will really miss them. In case all my blogs about them aren’t an indication, I’ve really come to appreciate the band and what they’ve done for worship music. They single handedly restored my faith that it doesn’t have t0 be boring. Because before I discovered them, that’s basically how I felt about that genre.

What you may not know is that I’ve only been a fan since this past June. I’d kind of disregarded them as more of the same. Sadly I hadn’t given them a fair chance — it was guilt by association, really. Then in June I was helping my friend Trevor do sound for a youth event that was being held at our church. It just so happened, the youth group played some Crowder while the kids were assembling and mingling. It was good music, but I didn’t really know who it was. Trevor mentioned that it was Crowder, and I was kind of shocked. Like with my Radiohead epiphany, I decided I really needed to hear more of it.

About a month later, my favorite radio station got replaced with extremely sucky talk radio aimed at chicks, which completely did not interest me, even though I am one of those chicks they were trying to attract. At the same time, K-Love came to town. Despite my insistance that Christian music mostly sucks, I decided to give it a shot. Because what else was there anyway? The good part was, amid the mediocre Steven Curtis Chapman and Casting Crowns, they played a good amount of Crowder and I was liking it.

My new found love of their music led me to the concert I trekked through October snow to see, which in turn just made me an even bigger fan. Live music does that for me. I can’t get enough. Yes, I have become Rabid DC*B Fangirl.

And I think, after having lived my whole life associating this kind of music with cheesiness, I’m really sad that this better version has to end. But on the bright side, they’re not retiring. I follow them all on Twitter, so I know these things. (What did I say about being a rabid fangirl??) They are super talented, and what’s even better is, they use their talent to point us to something bigger. To Someone bigger. As Andrew Beaujon put it in his book Body Piercing Saved My Life:

I got worship music during a sound collage, during the last number, “Rescue Is Coming,” when Crowder bent down and started fiddling with an effect pedal so that his guitar was feeding back in an interesting loop, so engrossing, in fact, that I didn’t even notice that he’d disappeared completely for a minute or so.

…Here’s a guy surrounded by rabid fans… consciously removing himself from the spotlight. There was only one star at that evening’s show, and he hadn’t been onstage at all.

I think that pretty much describes the entirety of this band’s career. I will miss them as a band on one hand, but on the other, I can’t wait to see what they as individuals do next!